The present invention relates to transporting apparatuses used in automated warehouses, and more specifically to transporting apparatuses in which a loading platform for transporting articles is provided that is capable of horizontally advancing and retreating to a moving platform that is raised and lowered.
Such a transporting apparatus is disclosed for example in JP 2000-219498A (paragraphs [0017] and [0018], FIGS. 1 and 2), and is an apparatus for transporting articles set on an article loading platform. This apparatus has a vehicle that moves horizontally near the ground, a support column fixed to the vehicle and extending vertically, a raising and lowering stand that moves vertically along this support column, and an article loading platform on which articles are loaded and which can move between a home position and an extended position with respect to the raising and lowering stand. In the position opposite a desired article storage portion, by moving the article loading platform from the raising and lowering stand to the extended position, the article loading platform is inserted under the article, and then by raising up the article loading platform the article is loaded onto the article loading platform and removed from the article accommodating portion. Then, by withdrawing the article loading platform after lowering it with respect to the article through the lowering operation of the raising and lowering stand, the article is stored within the article storage portion.
With this type of transporting apparatus, if there is a change in the position or orientation of an article placed on the article loading platform due to inertia during transfer, for example, then when storing the article in the article storage portion, the article is interfered with by partition frames of the article storage portion. To prevent this from occurring, measures such as stopping operation were necessary.
Thus, conventionally there were devices in which an article loading state detection sensor was provided on the article loading platform, which detected the occurrence of a change in the article loading state by detecting the absence of an article in a detected position of the article loading platform.